Vignettes: 2: Birthday Surprise
by Miss Woodford
Summary: A plot bunny that wouldn't stop nibbling my ear. Edward is determined to make the perfect birthday surprise for Mommy. But a just as determined Alphonse wants to be in on it. Mostly harmless, but the cuteness might make you weak.
1. Just You Wait

**VIGNETTES**

**Disclaimer:**I don't own FMA, I just like to play around in it's world for a while and annoy the canon characters.

**Author's note:**This series is based on some little orphan plot bunnies which wouldn't stop nibbling on my ears until I wrote little oneshots around them. The premise of this one is simple: What if someone interrupted Ed and Al before they attempted human transmuation?

**BETA:** Took-baggins

I. Just You Wait ('Till Your Father Gets Home)

"Water, thirty-five liters. Carbon, twenty kilograms. Ammonia four liters. Lime one point five kilograms."

Thunder grumbled in the far distance over the Hollow Hills. A violent summer storm was approaching Risembool.

"Phosphorus, eight- hundred grams. Sodium, two- hundred fifty grams. Potassium, one- hundred grams. Sulphur, eighty grams. Flouride seven point five grams. Iron, five grams. Silicon, three grams."

Ten year old Edward Elric let his tongue slip out one side of his mouth as he concentrated on drawing the runes in the transmuation circle. They had to be absolutely perfect. If just one was off by the slightest degree, the result would be a disastrous rebound.

Edward did not want that to happen.

For his sake.

For his little brother's sake.

He drew the last rune.

There.

_Perfect._

Inside the next half hour their mother would be alive again, healthy and happy and basking in the love of her two boys who risked their souls to bring her back to life. Thunder rumbled again, this time much closer.

"Ready, Al?" Edward pulled a small knife from a back pocket of his shorts and flipped the blade opened. He studied the gleaming metal for a moment before he drew the sharp metal across a finger tip and hissed between his teeth at the pain. The skin leapt aside and bright pearls of blood welled up in the narrow cut it left and dripped onto the pile in the gigantic metal pan.

"Our blood for her blood, it's a fair trade, right?" He extnded the knife towards his little brother, but Alphonse didn't stick his finger out.

"Um, brother? Are you sure we should do this?" Alphonse's round face was tight with concern and there was a small unhappy note to his words.

Edward narrowed his gold eyes and glared so hard, Alphonse actually took a step back from him.

"Al, all the calculations are perfect, We have all the ingrediants for one adult human body, down to Mom's fingernails and eyelashes, including some of our blood. Nothing could go wrong. _What_ could go wrong?"

Alphonse started at a faint sound he thought he heard coming from outside the closed door of their father's study. It sounded like the outside door had just opened. Maybe the rising wind outside had pushed it open, but maybe someone was coming. He hoped it was Granny Pinako, she would stop this. He wished with all his heart it was her. Thunder boomed almost directly over their heads and he jumped a few inches into the air.

"AL!" Edward covered the few feet between them in three strides and held out the knife, but Alphonse didn't move. He reached and grabbed his little brother's left hand and slashed at it with the blade, perhaps with more force than he intended. Alphonse gasped out a sharp cry of pain,k but Edward ignored his outburst.

"Don't wimp out on me now!"

He held Alphonse's hand over the pan and squeezed the finger slightly until several drips joined his blood on the pile. Alphonse whimpered and yanked his hand back the second Edward released his grip. He turned away, mumbling something under his breath and Edward's scowl deepened.

"Where are you going?"

"To find something to wrap my finger." Alphonse rummaged throuigh the drawers of his father's desk until he found an old handkerchief, softened by many launderings. He wrapped it three times around the finger before clumsily tying a double knot with the other hand.

"AL! Get over here!"

Alphonse froze in the middle of tying the second knot because he could have sworn he heard footsteps. If only Brother would shut up for two miinutes...

Edward growled deep in his throat, a sign his patience was wearing down to a bare nub. Alphonse finished tying the knot and turned around to return glare for glare. "Brother, you're mean..."

"Stop being such a baby, Alphonse." Edward's tone and use of his brother's full name signalled his was becoming really angry and would resort to punching Al's arm very soon. "Mom will bandage your finger up nice later." He paused briefly in his tirade before he smiled at Alphonse, sighed, and let his body relax. "The sooner we start, the sooner we'll see her smile again, and I can't wait."

"Yeah," Alphonse pushed back his annoyance and smiled back in anticipation. "You're right, Brother. I can't wait either."

"Aren't I always right, Al?" Edward chuckled and poked Alphonse's ribs with his elbow after he walked back to the array.

The two knelt down at the outer chalk line. "Let's do this Al."

"Right, brother."

The were on the verge of rocking forward and slapping their palms down when the door knob rattled. The brothers froze, and Alphonse held his breath. Was this deliverance?

Edward sat back on his haunches, irritation and bewilderment fighting for control on his mobile young face. "What the hell?"

The lock of the study door suddenly gave way and the door swung open, banging hard against the wall just as a bolt of lighting arced through the night sky. It up the room as bright as day for a brief moment. Alphonse could barely remember the man who stood there and frowned down at them, eyeglasses glinting in the dim lamplight. Thunder boomed and the heavens gave their all.

His mother had shown him pictures and he recognized his and Brother's father. He gulped audibly which caused Edward to throw a sharp look at him.

They were in BIG trouble now.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Winry Rockball cautiouslyi eased her bedcovers back and smiled to see the morning sunlight flooding into her bedroom.. She slid out of bed, walked to the window, raised the blinds and pushed up the sash. Fresh air, bird song and the scent of the world washed clean poured in.

She poked her head out of the window and sniffed the air. Onlhy a few high, puffy white clouds rode in beautiful blue sky as if nature herself was apologizing for the tantrum she'd thrown last night. Last nights storn that brought thunder so loud Winry hid under the sheets and sobbed with fear seemed a million years ago. It was going to be a gorgeous day.

Although it was late in Septemberr, the weather was mild and and there would be no school because today was Fuhrer Bradley's birthday. Endless hours of play with the Elrilc brothers stretched out before her, full of possibilities for innocent childhood fun. Winry was so lost in throught, she didn't hear her bedroom door open and claws come clicking across the wooden floor towards her until something cold and wet touched her bare leg and made her gasp.

"Den!" The young mutt's mouth opened into a big doggy smile after Winry turned around to smile at her, then bend down to hug the furry neck. Den's tongue licked at the dried tear tracks on the girl's face and her tail wagged hard enough to ruffle the bottom of Winry's sleep shirt. The enticing aroma of bacon and eggs drifted in through the open bedroom door and Winry endured a few more tongue laps before she affectionately ruffled Den's ears.

"Ready for breakfast, girl?" Den replied with a short soft bark of approval.

Granny had also put an apple pie into the oven. The aroma of apples and cinnamon filled the kitchen while Winry ate bacon, eggs and home baked bread spead with strawberry jam while slipping the occasional tidbit to Den under the table. After she finished, she helped Granny wash the breakfast dishes and then went upstairs to splash water on her face, brush her hair and dress in a blue-and-white striped short-sleeved shirt and matching shorts of solid blue. She slid her feet into red leather sandals and clattered downstairs back to the kitchen in time to see Granny take the pie out of the oven.

Once it cooled, Pinako cut three generous slices of the pie, wrapped them in cloth napkins and placed them into a small wicker basket along with a jug of homemade peach juice and three cups. She closed the baskets lid. "There you are, Winry dear. Don't let Edward hog the pie." Pinako handed the basket to her with a big smile around the ever present pipe clenched between her teeth.

"I won't, Granny. Ed acts like a jerk sometimes, but I can handle him." WInry took the basket and skpped out the door with Den righit at her heels. "Bye, Granny!"

Pinako waved back, wincing only slightly when the screen door slammed. Winry was singing a song she'd heard on the radio and Pinako listened to it slowly fade away as her granddaughter moved out of earshot. She headed for her favorite chair to relax and read the morning paper before that days automail paitients came for their appointments.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Winry skipped along the road towards the village of Risembool until she reached the bottom of _their_ hill, the steepest rise in the countryside. They could see for miles and miles from its crest, on a clear day even New Optain was faintly visible in the distance. It shimmered like a mirage, like a dream of adventure.

The Rain River curled around the opposite side of the hill and just behond that was the lone set of train tracks which stretched straight off into the horizon to the provincial capitol of East City. Edward used to brag that one day he'd ride that train all the way to Central and never come back to _'boring old Risembool'_.

What good times they'd had upon that hill.

Winry's face was bright with anticipation as she trudged up the steep slope to the top. The sun was rising higher and the air was getting hotter, and she was sweating by the time she got to the shade of the lone oak tree which stood like a sentinel high above just harvested fields. WInry expected the brothers to be already there and probably squabbling due to boredom. They would be so happy to see what she'd brought for a pre-lunch snack.

But the soft grass underneath the tree was bare when she finally got there.

No matter. Edward probably wanted to see how high the rain-swollen river had gotten. Maybe he, Al and some of the other boys were making paper boats to sail in the increased current or even starting a mudball fight. _Boys..._

Winry leaned against the solid comforting bulk of the trees trunk and slid down, then settled in to wait for them, like she often did. Den, her tongue lolling out of her mouth flopped down next to Winry and promptly went to sleep.

One hour.

Two hours.

Two and a half hours.

Winry ate her slice of pie slowly while feeling growiong annoyance with the brothers. Where _were_ they? She wiped an errant drip of peach juice off her chin with the back of her hand, re-packed the jug, glass and now empty napkin back into the basket and stood up. Den was instantly awake and she stood up too, tail waving and brown eyes expectant. After wiping stray blades of grass of the seat of her shorts, Winry walked back town the hill, then turned back up the road, towards the Elric house.

Two little boys were in BIG trouble.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////

Under a full head of self-righteous steam, Winry walked up the lane which led to the front door of Ed and Al's house, feeling more angry with each step. She'd half considered going home to see if the brothers were there and pestering Granny, but she was sure her grandmother would have steered them towards the hill.

_How DARE they make me wait? They are SO in for it!_

Winry wished she'd brought her new wrench with her to hit them with, that would teach them, but then a little voice niggled at the back of her head. _What if they're sick?_ The thought made Winry stop dead in her tracks and a feeling of sick dread turned that piece of pie into a heavy weight in her stomach.

_What if... they tried to use alchemy to bring their mom back?_

Both Ed and Al were alchemy freaks and they'd been really cagey about their activities in the past few weeks, as if they were planning something. Winry broke into a dead run, the dropped the basket somewhere along the way and she heard the jug of peach juice shatter, but she didn't care. Fear leant wings to her feet, even Den felt it and abandoned the intriguing basket to race after than alongisde her mistress. Both of them covered the final few yards to the Elric house in a blur.

The house was silent, the windows black and empty like staring eyes. Winry tugged on the front door,but it was stubbornly locked and she banged on it with the flat of her hand, "Ed! Al! Are you two in there?!" Fresh tears ran easily down her flushed cheeks.

Winry clattered back down the front steps and raced around with Den to the back of the house. A key was hidden behind a loose stone block on the back porch. If something was really wrong, she could use the phone in the kitchen to call for help. She rounded the last corner and juddered to a halt. Den raced past her, then stopped and looked back, confusion on her face.

Sheets were hanging haphazrdly on the clothes line and she could hear faint muttering that sounded like Ed and Al's voice. _Oh, thank the gods they're all right!_ A strong, sudden gust of wind blew one of the sheets almost vertical and then Winry saw two pairs of feet-one in red shoes, th e other in blue leather sandals-standing on two wooden boxes.

"Ed! Al!" Winry sobbed with relief as she ran forward around the clothesline and what she saw nearly made her burst out laughing.

Edward and Alphonse both wore long smock aprons which reached down almost to their toes. Edward wore green gingham check with darker green ruffles and bunnies appliqued on the skirt. Alphonse was in dusky pink with black rulffles and kitten faces embroidered on the bib. Colorful handkerchiefs were knotted around their heads while they hung bedsheets on the line. Or tried to anyways.

Both were making rather a hash of the job and a loud giggle forced its way past Winry's lips and Den gave a doggy smile as if even she was amused. Edward scowled back at her, but Alphonse, his mouth full of clothespins gave her a smile and wiggle of his eyebrows.

"You two make such pretty maids!" Winry tittered, her hands were over her mouth but they couldn't hold the laughter back.

"Shut up, Winry!" Edward snapped just before the wind gusted in his direction and enfolded a wet sheet about his head, "Glub! Ack!"

He flailed around in an attempt to get it off, but he only managed to unbalance the box which tipped over and dropped him right on his backside. "OW! Dammit!" His reddened face screwed up in pain, Edward sat on the ground and rubbed one butt cheek.

Winry's face paled. She stopped laughing and ran over to help Edward up. With a disgusted look, he shook her hands off and then pushed her back. "Leave me alone!"

Alplhonse spit the pins out of his mouth and admonished, "She's only trying to help, Brother! Don't be so rude!" He hopped off his own box and helped Winry back to her feet. Edward stalked off to the large oak tree that stood at the edge of the back yard. Allphonse brushed blades of grass off Winry's shorts. "Are you all right, Winry?"

"I'm fine, Al. But - what is going on?" Winry turned the box Edward had been using back upright and sat down. "You two never showed up on the hill and Granny baked a nice apple pie for us. I brought a piece for each of us and some peach juice and - oh!"

Alphonse had sat down on his box...or he tried to. The minute his shorts clad bottom touched the wood, he jumped back up while uttering a sharp squeak of pain.

"Al, I'm sorry, but I dropped the basket while I was running. I got worried about you two and what is _wrong_ with you?"

"My bottom hurts," he shrugged, trying to be nonchalant. "It's nothing."

"Did you fall down the stairs, or something?"

"No... um," Alphonse hesitated and bit his lip before he looked over at Edward. But his brother was too busy sulking as he leaned against the tree. His back was to them and his posture was stiff with anger.

But Alphonse still pitched his voice lower. "Brother and I were going to bring Mom back to life last night, but someone came."

"AL! You didn't!" Winry was horrified, but also curious. "Who came?"

"Dad. He came home, after all these years. He was really mad and told us to stop right away. But Brother jumped up and smarted off to him. Dad's face got really dark and I thought he was going to kill Brother for what he said."

"Wha-what happened?" And why can't you sit down without pain?"

"Well, Winry. It's like this, both of us got a spanking, so um-our butts really hurt, so much we can't sit down. We had to eat our breakfast standing up and dad is a really lousy cook to boot!"

Winry was incredulous. Edward was ten and Alphonse was nine, both were too old to be spanked. Edward certainly wouldn't stand for treatment like that. "Your _DAD_ spanked you?!"

"No, not Dad. He clapped his hands and those two old suits of armor in his study started moving. They grabbed us, put us over their knees and spanked each of us ten times. Then Dad sent us to bed. Without any supper!" Alphonse's lower lip stuck out as if not the spanking, but no supper was the true injustice.

The back door creaked open just at that moment and all three children started and looked over. Standing on the threshold was one of those old suits of armor, the really scary one that had all the spikes on the shoulders. But it also wore a frilly apron and carried a basket of wet laundry. A hollow voice boomed from the helmet and Winry shuddered despite the heat of the day. A crop of goosebumps raced up her arms.

"Edward! Alphonse! Those sheets won't hang themselves, so get back to work! The next load is finished and you have to hang all of it before you get lunch!"

"We gotta go, Winry. Part of our punishment is to do all the chores Mom used to do for us."

"O.K. Bye Al, bye Ed." She called to the older brother who was grumpily returning to the clothesline. Winry began to turn away, but acting on a sudden impulse, she spun around and hugged Alphonse. Then she hugged Edward who was surpsied enough to stop scowling for a moment. "Ill see you later, k?"

"Sorry, Winry, we can't." Edward mumbled softly, his head hanging.

_HUH?_

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Winry trudged back to the Rockbell house, basket in hand, late that afternoon as the sun began to drop behind the peaks of the Hollow Hills. Pinako was sitting on the porch and smoking her pipe, feet up on a hassock after that day'a automail surgeries and check-ups were completed. All the paitents were resting comfortably and Pinako considered it was time Winry began learning about the messier aspects of automail grafting. Just then she saw her granddaughter return, looking sad and beaten down.

"H'm?" she leaned forward and watched Winry walk slowly up the path to the house. Den walked next to her, the dog's head was down, but she suddenly looked right at Pinako and whined, as if she was passing on a private worry to the old woman. The dog looked confused . Pinako was concerned, had Edward been mean to her again? When Winry reached the porch, she climbed up just two steps before she sat down, setting the basket beside her. She turned a frown in her grandmother's direction.

"I'm sorry, Granny, but I dropped the basket and broke the jug while I was running." She had looked downward while she said it and Pinako saw a few tears spatter onto the wooden step.

Pinako _tut-tutted_. "That's all right dear, I have lots of jugs like that. But whey didn't you ask the Elrics to fix it for you with alchemyi?"

"They can't, Granny! They've been forbidden to use alchemy, it's part of their punishment!"

_Forbidden? Punsihment?_ "Winry, dear, who forbade them to use alchemy?"

"Their dad! He came home last night and caught them doing some alchemy they weren't supposed to!"

"Hmmm..." the old woman scratched her chin and considered, but she couldn't keep the grin from snaking across her face. Her old drinking buddy was back in town, and about time too. "Winry, let's go inside and you tell me the whole story while we fix supper."

Winry did so while she peeled potatoes and chopped carrots to help her grandmother. Pianko was amused by Hohenheim's idea of discipline, although she thought the frilly aprons were punishment enough for two red-blooded Amestrian boys. They sat down to eat their evening meal, double-sauced meat loaf with sides of steamed carrots and mashed potatoes. But just before Winry dug her fork in, she paused and blurted out in a near wail, "And it gets worse Granny!"

"How so!"

They've been grounded for the rest of the year!"


	2. Birthday Surprise

**Vignettes**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FMA, I just like to annoy the characters.

**Author's note:** A pleasant little series of oneshots which supposes what would have happened had certain things occured differently, or side stories never covered in the manga/anime. Just think of them as off-the-wall omakes.

**Warnings:** enough sweet fluffiness to give you a sugar rush.

**Beta:** Took-baggins

_II. __Birthday Surprise_

On a hot, still summer afternoon in Risembool, Eastern Amestris.

Inside a second story room in a pale blue house, a young boy with mussed blond hair sat at a child-sized desk. A large sheet of off-white drawing paper was on the surface in front of him, and scattered on either side was a collection of fat crayons in many different colors.

His tongue sticking out the side of his mouth, the boy held a crayon in one small fist and diligently worked on drawing a large red heart in the middle of the paper. Just above the heart, in dark blue crayon were the words

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMMY!**

One extra "m", but three year old Edward Elric was just learning how to spell.

Below the heart, in dark green crayon was written:

**I LUVE YOO!**

The "E" was backwards, but Edward really did love his mother, truly he did. As he drew, Edward paddled his feet, strapped into blue sandals. back and forth in the air and he occasionally paused to scratch a day-old mosquito bite under the left sleeve of his red shirt. He was so intent on his work at drawing the perfect birthday card, he didn't notice the pit-pat of tiny feet approaching him.

Not until he felt something warm and wet falling on his blue shorts did Edward look down with a frown to see his little brother, one and one-half year old Alphonse, who was drooling around the chunk of apple he sucked on. He wore only a cloth diaper in the extreme heat of late summer.

Alphonse gave Edward a big, gap-toothed smile the instant he was noticed.

"Brudder!"

"Go 'way, Al! I'm doin' sumthin!"

"BRUDDER!"

Edward set down the red crayon and he picked up a pink crayon to color the inside of the heart, and Alphonse squealed with glee at the sight. He dropped the apple on the floor when he pointed at the crayon. "Color!"

"Oh!" Alphonse exclaimed a beat later when he realized he'd dropped his snack. He bent awkwardly down to retrieve the apple, which he stuck back into his mouth.

"Yuck". Edward muttered in disgust because he thought his little brother was so gross.

Alphonse copied him because he loved to do whatever his big brother did. "Yuck!"

That gave Edward an idea and he set the crayon back down before he stuck his fingers into the corners of his mouth, pulled them back, and then stuck out his tongue and crossed his eyes. "Bleh!"

Alphonse responded with a high-pitched giggle, he dropped the apple a second time and made a sloppy attempt to copy Edward's funny face. He giggled again when Edward switched to pushing up the bottom of his nose with two index fingers, and then pulled down the skin under his eyes with his thumbs.

Alphonse laughed so hard he fell down on his diapered bottom. He smiled hugely at Edward before he again picked up the apple stuck it back into his mouth and commenced a half-hearted gnawing.

"'K, Al, now go 'way, I'm busy!"

Edward turned back to the desk and picked up the pink crayon again, causing Alphonse to forget about the apple once and for all. He dropped it on the floor, pointed with a finger dripping with drool and apple juice and yelped in a high-pitched voice "COLOR!"

His big brother sighed with exasperation. If he gave in, he wouldn't finish his mommy's birthday surprise. But Al would start crying if he didn't, and mommy would come up to see what all the noise was about. Her birthday surprise would be ruined.

"UP!" the toddler demanded in a scary, I'm-losing-patience tone.

Edward heaved a melodramatic sigh, and as if he knew he'd won another battle, Alphonse grinned and held his arms up in the towards him. The younger boy tried to help Edward by standing on the chair rungs, but his hands and arms were slippery. He wore only that cloth diaper and there was no way Edward was going to touch it, so he tried to wrap his arms around Alphonse's body.

"Unnnfff!" Edward grunted as the chair began to tip dangerously to the left. He could feel his center of gravity heading for the point of no return. He pulled once more and suddenly Alphonse was more or less in his lap. He squirmed around until he was sitting up and facing the desk, and straddling Edward's right leg. Equilibrium restored, the chair tipped back and its right legs thumped solidly on the floor. The sound startled Alphonse whose big dark brown eyes became even rounder, tears vibrated in the corners of those eyes and his lower lip stuck out.

"It's O.K. Al, don't cry." In a breathless voice, Edward hurried to assure Alphonse, half-afraid a storm of noisy tears would soon follow. Alphonse's eyes brimmed over and a few tears dribbled down to join the drool on his cheeks, he sniffled a few times, but didn't cry. Edward smiled at him and Alphonse scrambled to sit up and smile back through his tears. His little brother was so easy to amuse, but, he would stay cheerful as long as Edward was. Alphonse was a generally happy baby who responded quickly to the moods of others.

Women and girls gathered around to "ooh" and "ahh" whenever the Elrics went into the village, and Alphonse really was a cutie. His untidy hair the color of warm caramel, enormous brown eyes, chubby red cheeks and sunny disposition endeared him to everyone. The attention Alphonse received made Edward a bit jealous and he'd developed a tendency to act up whenever too much fuss was made over his little brother.

So Alphonse could coo and smile and blow bubbles from his little mouth, big whoop. Edward could already sit in his potty chair by himself, he knew some colors, he could spell a few words - and he could count - to FIVE! Alphonse mostly just drooled and filled his diapers. That wasn't so special. _Sibling rivalry_ the adults would chuckle before they patted the top of Edward's head and told him to be a good boy.

But for all that, Edward himself had a soft spot for Alphonse. Mommy told him over and over again he was bigger and stronger than Alphonse, so it was his job to take care of and protect his little brother. This made his three-year old chest swell with pride, and when they walked into the village, Edward always went a few steps ahead to watch for nonexistent dangers. You never knew when pirates - or - _something_ might come roaring into the quiet valley.

"COLOR!" Alphonse demanded again and Edward's mind snapped back to the here and now. Alphonse was reaching for the pink crayon, but his short, sausage round arms couldn't quite reach. He started to whine, a low pitched sound like a threshing machine starting up on a distant farm field.

"Here, Al, lemme gettit!" Edward reached out, picked up the crayon and handed it to Alphonse, who responded with a small whoop of glee before he stuck the dull end of the crayon into his mouth. "No, Al, don' do that! Ick!"

"Ick!" Alphonse repeated, he turned and looked up at Edward, and then gurgled happily, the crayon still in his mouth. Edward smiled, despite his annoyance at drool on his pink crayon. Alphonse returned the smile, his nose was running with green snot and his diapered bottom straddling Edward's leg felt suspiciously damp.

'K, Al. Wanna help me color mommy's card?" The toddler's face lit up like a jack-o-lantern and he nodded happily. Alphonse took the pink crayon out of his mouth and reached for the paper, but Edward seized his chubby wrist just before he could color outside the lines.

"No, Al, you gotta color inside the heart!"

Alphonse started that whine again. "COLOR!" It was his way or a storm of tears.

"Yeah, Al, you can color, but do it inside the heart, 'k?" A light went on in Edward's head when he realized the secret weapon that would bring instant cooperation from Alphonse. "Color inside and Mommy will be happy." He said it in a voice too sly to come from a three year old boy.

Alphonse hesitated. He wanted to color his way, but he also wanted to make Mommy happy. A happy mommy who stacked wooden blocks for him to knock over, sang lullabies to him before his nap, tickled his belly and said silly things like, "I'm going to eat your chocolate ears!"

Two opposing ideas warred in his young mind: Color his way versus make mommy happy.

The scales tipped back and forth for a moment before a happy mommy won.

Alphonse stopped resisting and he let Edward guide his hand while he scribbled inside pink the lines of the red heart. After his arm got tired, he let go of the crayon and watched while Edward finished the job. When that was done, Edward gave him a light green crayon and helped Alphonse sign his name on the bottom right side of the heart.

**ALLFONZE**

Edward wrote his name in sky blue on the opposite side of the heart:

**EDDARWD**

Not perfect, but he was just learning how to spell and he didn't quite have the hang of writing his and Alphonse's names yet.

"Edward! Alphonse!" a much beloved voice drifted up the stairs and through the half open door of the play room. The brothers looked at each other and said "Mommy!" at the same time, Alphonse's voice a high-pitched squeak. Footsteps tripped up the stairs and the voice called again, closer this time. A petite and trim woman with long chestnut hair pushed the door fully open and entered.

"There my little ruffians are! What have you been up too?!"

"It's Mommy!" Alphonse crowed with delight at the sight of her and he bounced up and down excitedly on Edward's leg. She bent down and picked him up after he held his chubby arms out to her. Edward sighed quietly with relief because his bony little pelvis had been digging in and his leg had been going numb. "What's this?"

"Card, Mommy! We made a birfday card for you!"

She smiled and it seemed another sun had come out inside the playroom because every inch of her face lit up. Even the plain knee-length blue dress she wore seemed to glow. Both boys basked like cats in the warmth of her approval.

Mommy was happy.

"That is beautiful, and so sweet of you two, but now it's..." she sniffed and wrinkled her nose. "Oh, somebody needs a fresh diaper!" She walked out of the room with Alphonse, whle making faces that caused him to giggle. "Eww, Mr. Stinky Butt!"

Edward was left alone with the card, and he felt strangely dissatisfied. His original plan had been to go downstairs to the kitchen and surprise Mommy with it. Al had ruined it - but maybe not all was lost. Edward hopped off the chair, then he padded cautiously to the door and peered around it down the hall to the room where Mommy was changing Al's diaper. A high-pitched shriek of laughter erupted followed by Mommy's lightly scolding voice, "Alphonse! That was naughty! Be a good boy and hold still!"

_No, Al, be a bad boy._ Edward thought. _Be very bad and keep Mommy busy._

Edward backtracked to the desk, and then crawled underneath it. Right against the wall he pushed down on one end of a floor board and the other end tilted up. He reached into the exposed cavity and pulled out a small book bound in brown leather before backing back out. Back in the chair, Edward looked at the cover which bore slightly incised gold lettering. He carefully sounded out the words in a low whisper:

**F-U-N-D-A-M-E-N-T-A-L-S**

**O-F**

**A-L-C-H-E-M-Y**

He didn't _quite_ understand what the words meant, but his agile mind got the gist of it. Edward opened the book partway, folded in half were several sheets of white paper and he took those out. They were covered with doodles for the most part, drawn while he was bored and idly flipping through the books pages. It didn't have many pictures in it, but it did contain a lot of diagrams of circles with symbols on them. On one of the papers, Edward had drawn one of those diagrams; a circle bisected with four large triangles pointing in different directions.

He replaced the other papers inside the book, closed it, and set it aside before placing that diagram on top of the birthday card. Edward smoothed out the fold lines as best he could before he placed the fingers of both hands on the circle and concentrated. A low hum which he felt more than heard came from the circle and blue light crackled above the ink lines. Spots of other colors began to shimmer in the light, they sparkled and danced for a moment and then fell onto the surface of the card where they continued to sparkle.

Edward was sweating by the time he lifted his fingers and the glow and the hum faded. He picked up the paper and smiled at his handiwork. Now several dozen tiny stars, in all different colors sparkled around the heart. Mommy would love them because they shone like her hazel eyes.

"Edward! Supper is almost ready! Wash your hands and come downstairs!" He could have died right then because her call sounded so close, fortunately his mother's footsteps went the other way down the hallway, to the stairs. Edward re-folded the paper, put it back into the book, and restored it to its hiding place underneath the desk. He picked up the card by the edges, being careful not to touch the stars and walked out of the playroom.

Down in the kitchen, Mommy had just secured Al into his high chair and she smiled broadly at Edward after he entered. "Let's hang up that card where everyone can see it," she suggested and held out one hand. The smile faltered when she saw the sparkling stars on the card.

"Edward," she began, she looked at him and smiled, and then back at the card where her smile faltered a second time. "Those are pretty, but how did you make them?"

"Secret, Mommy," Edward returned her smile with an innocent beam of his own.

"Secet!" Alphonse piped up and banged his child-size spoon on the high chairs wooden tray. "Secet! Secet! Secet!" Once he learned a new word, Alphonse would repeat it almost continuously. It distracted Mommy enough that Edward knew she wouldn't ask any more questions.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

A couple of hours later, after the children had their baths and a bedtime story before they went to sleep, Trisha returned to the kitchen to finish cleaning up. She scraped left over food from dishes before putting them in the sink to soak in warm water; she would wait and wash them with tomorrow's breakfast dishes. Then she turned out the overhead light and plopped down with a sigh into one of the wooden chairs around the table. _His_ chair, the one he once sat in for meals, before he told her "Goodbye" for the last time and walked out of their lives.

Trisha sighed again and looked at the card Edward had made. Even in the semi-dark, the little stars scattered about the heart shone like tiny night lights. "Oh,Hohenheim. Edward has your talent. I wish you were here right now because he will need your guidance." She could almost feel his warm hands on her shoulders, and she longed for his touch. Although her rational side told her she'd probably never see him again, Trisha still wished he'd walk in through the kitchen door right this minute.

Trisha rose from the chair and stretched her arms overhead and yawned. She'd had a long day with two active toddlers and tomorrow would be more of the same. But despite her sadness, she felt a warm glow whenever she looked at the card and the winking lights on it.

It was a beautiful birthday card.

Even if today really wasn't her birthday.


End file.
